April 29, 2025— The developer of an AI tutor based on China’s homegrown technology is making BNBU her first testing ground as she aims to help teachers and students harness generative AI technologies to boost learning while discouraging plagiarism.

In a lecture to about 100 BNBU teachers, Odet Abadia, founder of the company “AI for Teachers” and head of the Shanghai Vancouver Film School’s AI Future Imaging Research Center presented a system she created for teachers to use GenAI tools like DeepSeek and Qwen to design a tutor for each assignment. The AI tutor is available 24/7 and can prompt students to think on their own, just as the teacher would.

Odet Abadia delivering a lecture to BNBU teachers

Odet said the key to deterring students from plagiarizing is to require them to submit their conversation with the AI Tutor, which she said takes less than two hours to design for each assignment.

Since developing the tutors in early 2025 Odet said her colleagues at the film school report  improvement in student performance, allowing them to spend more time on bringing students to the next level.  She is preparing tutorials for a select group of BNBU teachers to “test drive” before she promotes her program nationwide.

Later in the day in a lecture to about 30MCOM students, Odet said it is very important for journalism students to understand the limitations and possibilities of using AI.

Odet Abadia during a Q&A session with the class

Odet explained step-by-step how prompts input by humans are broken down by generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs), noting it is important for all AI users to understand this to grasp the limitations of the technology.

MCOM students in Convergent Journalism reading SHVFS leaflets

Odet highlighted the ethical challenges posed by AI, including how AI models are trained and violations of copyright, as well as the abusive treatment and the neglect of health issues like trauma experienced by data-labeling workers on the internet. She stressed humans must exercise their judgement, and the need for students to check generative AI’s work.

Written by Zhuang Kunyi
Edited by Jocelyn Ford